1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a reading apparatus and a reading method.
2. Related Art
A scanner for reading an image is configured so as to emit a light from a light source to a source material while moving an image pickup element relatively to the source material, and receiving the reflected light from the source material at the image pickup element, thereby reading the image expressed on the source material. The image pickup element is generally mounted so as to receive the reflected light at a certain fixed angle, specifically at 45 degrees with respect to an optical path of the light incident on the source material from the light source.
Examples of the source material to be read by the scanner include source materials with matt appearance, those with glossy appearance, those with metallic texture, and so forth. Examples of the glossy source material include photos printed on photo paper, and source materials printed with a clear ink for forming a gloss layer on a paper sheet. Examples of the source material with metallic texture include those printed with a metallic ink containing a metallic pigment. The metallic ink serves to provide a metallic texture to the finish of the printed material (see, for example, JP-A-2010-52247). Such a texture obtained from the metallic ink (metallic texture) may be considered as a kind of gloss, so to say an especial gloss.
Now, in the case of reading a glossy source material or a source material with metallic texture, the mounting angle of the image pickup element may constitute an issue, i.e., may affect the reading result. This is because an amount of light reflected by a glossy source material or source material with metallic texture is not uniform but differs depending on the reflection angle. Accordingly, reading the glossy or metallic source material with the image pickup element mounted at a fixed angle may result in failure to accurately read the feature of the source material, and consequently the image data generated on the basis of the read image may fail to enable accurately reproduction of the image expressed on the source material. In addition, when the image data thus generated is subjected to printing (when the source material is copied), the feature of the source material cannot be not precisely reproduced on the copy, in other words the glossy appearance or metallic texture is not reproduced on the copy although the source material has glossy appearance or metallic texture.